Outsider set to be appointed to oversee Star’s Queensland operations

The Queensland government could follow NSW and install a special manager to Star Entertainment’s Brisbane and Gold Coast casinos.

Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman. Picture: NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

The Queensland government could follow NSW and install a special manager at Star Entertainment’s Brisbane and Gold Coast casinos and hit the company with a fine of up to $100m, after it rushed urgent legislation through parliament.

Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman this month declared Star was unsuitable to hold a casino licence in Queensland, and ordered the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation to slap the company with a show cause notice.

That notice is still being prepared and, in the meantime, the Queensland parliament on Friday passed amendments to the state’s Casino Control Act allowing the government to appoint a special manager “in circumstances where it is necessary to discipline and potentially remediate a casino licensee back to suitability”.

Ms Fentiman told parliament the special manager would be entirely funded by the casino licensee, and would have to develop a remediation plan that would be approved by the attorney-general of the day.

“A special manager would be empowered to very closely monitor the casino and its day-to-day operations through a statutory power that allows the manager to enter and remain in any part of the casino and also sit in on board meetings of the casino,” she said.

“The special manager can also access all documents and records of the casino as they pertain to the management and operations of a hotel-casino complex. The special manager will be responsible for such investigations as directed by the government and will report back to the government on those investigations and on the remediation of a casino entity.”

The Australian understands the government would consider appointing the same special manager as NSW, to ensure a streamlined approach across Star’s interstate businesses.

In Queensland, Star now faces fines of up to $100m. The legislation passed on Friday hiked proposed maximum penalties from $50m to $100m, following retired judge Robert Gotterson’s independent inquiry which found Star engaged in “egregious” conduct.

Ms Fentiman said the Gotterson report findings were “shocking” and “demanded urgent action from the government”.

The same legislation revoked parts of an extraordinary contract the government signed with Star in 2016, promising to compensate the company if it hiked taxes or cut pokies numbers without corporate consent, at its $3.6bn Queen’s Wharf mega-development.

Opposition MP Michael Hart told parliament that the terms should never have been agreed.